Power cuts hitting production hard: Dera Bassi industrialists

The ongoing strike by several unions of the PSPCL have crippled the Dera Bassi industry for the past three days. Industrialists said all the units were suffering losses daily as the production work had come to a standstill.

Power outages for 8-10 hours continuously have broken the back of the entire set-up with precious manhours being wasted daily, an industrialist said.

Dera Bassi Industries Association secretary Rakesh R Aggarwal said, “With four to five hours of power cuts daily, the machines have been lying idle. Last three days have been a nightmare. If there is no power for 10 hours how long can we survive on gensets? The question is of demand meeting supply. If we need power now they cannot provide it six months later. By then, our workers would have left. We met Power Minister Harbhajan Singh last week and he promised to resolve it soon.”

The industry here is battling the double whammy of bad roads and poor electricity supply these days. Industrialists across the board said they were not getting the basic facilities like road and power while the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government was going gaga over the ‘ease of doing business’ for the past two years.

There are more than 1,000 big and small industrial units, including export houses, contributing roughly over Rs 20 crore to the monthly billing. The industry employed more than 40,000 workers who churned out a turnover of Rs 7,000 crore annually and around Rs 1,000 crore turnover involved export houses alone, locals said.

Industrialists pointed out that during the Sarkar-Sanatkar Milni in Mohali, the CM had promised three power sub-stations — PSIEC Focal Point, Bhagwanpur and Kuranwala — to provide uninterrupted power to the units. Since then the village panchayats and the PSPCL have been locked in a battle over a piece of land. Currently, the supply is being provided from Saidpura and Mubarikpur sub-stations which are totally saturated. No new connection is being given to a big unit now.

“The government’s two brothers are fighting a vain battle over a piece of land. CM Bhagwant Mann’s promise remains empty words,” an insider seeking anonymity said.

Dera Bassi Industries Association’s Parveen Goel said, “PSPCL has two JEs and five linemen to cover 28 feeders spread over a distance of 40 km. Staff shortage is a big issue here.”

Industry insiders said SDOs were reluctant to join Dera Bassi due to excessive workload here.